A Tour of La Paz and a baptism

We went on a tour bus to learn more about the city of La Paz.  These native Bolivians were on the steps of the Church across from the Plaza Murillo.  We love there native dress.

On the plaza, there were tons of pigeons.  More than we usually see.  This dad was helping his little boy feed the pigeons. 

We went to the supermarket and everything was too heavy to carry home.  It's just about a block away.  They have young kids there as baggers.  This one brought all the food to our apartment in the shopping cart, then took it back.  Elder Dibb gave him 10 Bolivianos for a tip.  His eyes got really big and he was so excited.  It was fun to have his help and to see his eyes light up.

Police were all along the streets as we traveled on the bus.  They were expecting another "march".

These ladies were on the steps of the Supreme Court building in the middle of La Paz.  The one has a baby on her back.  They make the big skirts by hand, along with the shawls and knitted hats.

This is the famous Illumani peak.  It has snow on it all year and are about 21, 200 feet high.  It is really a beautiful sight - when we can see it.  It is usually covered by clouds.

The tall ruin in the middle is from Tiwanaku (ancient ruins that we hope to visit in the near future).  The others are reproductions.  They don't let the real ones out of Tiwanaku now.  We saw Tiwanaku with Andrew about 8 years ago.)  This is a square in the section of Miraflores in La Paz.  During his first 6 months in La Paz years ago, Elder Dibb lived in a house right on the other side of the yellow building.

Usually we see policemen directing traffic.  But we also see the zebras who stop traffic and dance around.  They are kind of fun for the children.

We got our shoes shined on the corner of the park on our way home from the Mission Office.  This man charged us 5 Bolivianos for both of us.  That is less than $1.00.  Nice to have shiny shoes once in a while.

We had a wonderful experience on Saturday, April 21.  Arturo was baptized.  Elder Dibb had the opportunity to baptize him.  It was a special meeting and we had a good group of his friends and ward members to support him.  He is a nice young man.  One of his friends that he plays soccer with said that he never thought he would be baptized and that he has changed so much.

Elder Dibb and Arturo have a special bond.  As Arturo was bearing his testimony, he talked about getting rid of missionaries before, but when Elder Dibb started teaching him, he felt a special spirit and it has changed his life.  Elder Dibb says that he was just ready to hear and accept the Gospel.  It was a sweet experience.  He was confirmed on Sunday and received the priesthood.

We went to the market again on Monday.  These men carry huge bags on their backs to get the products to the different places on the streets.

Interesting sight from the venders on the street. 

P-day - a long walk

On P-day we tried to go on a bus tour only to find that the bus had broken down.  So, since it was a nice day, we decided to walk to a couple of parks we hadn't been to.  This one is on big hill.  But we had time, so we walked slowly.  This is the gate to the entrance.

Al

You can see that the walk going down the hill is pretty steep and goes back and forth.  There are a lot of parks, or plazas here in La Paz, but none of them are for playing.

Beside the park on top of the wall surrounding a home are broken bottles to keep trespassers out.

There was a rose garden in the part and in many places throughout the city there are shrines to Mary.  People put flowers at these places regularly.

This park is clear on the other side of the canyon.  As you can see it is kind of an amusement park.  But nothing was working.  It seems that nothing works and a lot of museums are not open on Mondays - Our P-day.

There is an amazing walkway on the side of the canyon that we walked out on.  Some of the pictures are taken from the walkway.

Looking down into the bottom of the canyon.  There are several soccer fields.  There are 4 in this picture and more to the left.  They have several different colors - all are concrete.

We took this picture of the home of one of our "less active" families.  These are the ones that were at our home for family home evening a couple of weeks ago.  Their home is the one at the bottom with no blocks.  It is 2 rooms for 5 people - no running water, etc.  The other two houses belong to other family members.  The room on the left is where we had lunch a few months ago and we put pictures on the blog of the mother and daughter.  We love these families and know that Heavenly Father loves them, too.

We walked up to the city and caught a picture of these Bolivians sitting on the steps of the cathedral  on the Plaza Murillo.  I love their native clothing.  These could be some of the many protesters in the city frequently.

We've never seen so many pigeons.  This Dad and his son are feeding them.  They cover the entire plaza.  When something scares them, it reminds you of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". 

Trip to the Cochabamba Temple

We arrived in Cochabamba around 10:00 Thursday night.  The temple president, Lee Crayk and his counselor, Ted Jackman picked us up.  This was our room.  We really only needed 2 beds, but the come as a dorm room.

Friday, after our session in the temple.  It was special to have the opportunity to be in the temple again.  You don't realize how much you love the peace and spirit that are there until you haven't been for a while.  It's been six months and we felt so blessed to receive permission from the area authority to go out of our mission and attend.

These are a few of the people from our ward who traveled by car (5 hours) to attend the temple.  We flew.  It took us about 30 minutes.

This is the huge building on the temple grounds where all patrons stay who have traveled quite a distance to be there.  There are also apartments for those who work in the temple in this building.

Elder Dibb with President and Hermana Crayk.  They are from the Sandy area in Utah and we spent a little time with them, enjoying their sense of humor and "speaking English".  They are a special couple who have been mission president, MTC president in Lima, Peru, and now the temple president in Cochabamba.

Later in the afternoon we took a taxi up to the Cristo statue on the hill.  Because it was Good Friday, it was packed with people.  There was a llama that people were having their pictures taken with, but the line was too long for us to wait.  Fun for the kids, though.

This is the temple from the Cristo statue.  It really stands out in the sea of red roofs.

The Cristo statue with people sitting on the fence that surrounds it.  You can actually go up into the statue.  But the line was really long and they say it is quite

claustrophobic

inside.  There are windows out the arms and throughout the statue.  It is quite impressive as you fly into Cochabamba.

These are the stairs that many people climb to get to the statue.  There are 1,399 stairs.  We took a taxi up and thought we would take the tram down.  It wasn't working.  So we went down the stairs.  It was tough on our knees and we just about didn't make it.  But we were happy that we were not climbing up.

Here's a mother with her little one on her back, climbing the stairs.

President and Hermana Jackman.  This was their day off.  They invited us to breakfast in their apartment Friday morning and then we visited for about an hour on Friday night.  They live in Highland, just south of Alpine.  Their neighbor taught school with Linda (Karen Peterson) and their daughter lives on the same street as Mindy.  Small world isn't it.  They have also served as mission president.

The temple at night.  It is so peaceful and beautiful on the temple grounds.  We didn't want to leave.

A picture of Illamani from the plane.  It is amazing.

This is the "highest" golf course in the world.  We hope to play it some day before we come home.  They give you a certificate stating that fact when you finish the course.  We are home and back into the routine of missionary work.

April 2, 2012

Not much to take pictures of this week.  But we got up one morning and we were truly "in the clouds."  Usually we can see clear across the canyon to the houses on the other side.

These pictures are out of the window from our apartment on the 7th floor.

Looking down on the Japanese Embasy.

Just a half hour later we were able to see the blue sky and all the buildings.  The fog had lifted and everything was beautiful.

This is how we buy our milk.  It comes in a plastic bag.  There is only a liter in each bag.  We cut off the corners at the top and pour the milk into a pitcher.  The small bag is an individual drink.  People carry them around during the day, bite off the corner and suck out the contents.  We see many people with the bag hanging from their mouths as they walk down the street.

We have juice, tomato sauce and mayonesa in the same kind of containers.  The only cans we see are from the United States.

We needed to share our prizes from Kellogg's Corn Flakes.  It was fun to be like little kids again and search for the "Prize".  When we were young, you had to search through the cereal.  But now, all you have to do is take out the bag of cereal and the car is in the bottom.  The names of the cars are: Sam Explorer and Tony Racer.  Pretty original names, huh?  Oh well, a diversion!!